I, for one, have been terrified of success. One of the great advantages of aging is I am no longer afraid of succeeding.

One would guess as one ages that the curiosity that drives the desire to learn would evaporate, but what I’ve found is that age doesn’t diminish the need to learn, to discover, and to better understand all that is puzzling and mystifying.

It’s at the bleakest moment that something will gently remind me of all that is still good in the world and in my life.

No one can predict what each new step will bring and where it will take you, which is kind of the point, I imagine. For me each step since that first one has brought into focus a life of living outside the US as a possibility and not just fantasy.

The idea of balance is a constant struggle for most of us. Yet with enough time, one learns how being unbalanced can become a hindrance to all of the things we hope to achieve or bring into our lives.

I rarely question the idea of having enough because I have more than necessary and more than I could dream.

The fact I cook is shocking given my ineptitude about turning on a dishwasher, washing machine, or vacuum cleaner. (No, I’m not exaggerating about any of this).

My recent diagnosis of having ADD is something I’d long suspected but which took a back seat to my more serious mental health challenges of depression and anxiety disorder.

Strangely, as if I have a split personality, I have buckets of patience doing things that would make a normal person want to tear their hair out.

In the last two years, I have been creating my own endings, all of them for my own good. Beginnings and endings can be exhilarating, but they can also bring up your fears about outcomes, the what will happen if…

The sad fact is that if one can’t find love for self, it is impossible to find true love for another since loving oneself teaches us how to extend that love outward. Simple yes, in theory, but we know the challenges.

However, or whoever, is an example for you in learning to accept whatever it is, know that we are all too human. And like all of us, we are trying our very best.